The user experience of menstrual residues on feminine hygiene products
Publicerad
Författare
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
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Sammanfattning
Many women experience issues with menstrual residues staying on top of their feminine care
products, such as blood clots, lumps or tissue particles. This has not been studied from a user
experience perspective. Thereby, this thesis aimed at investigating the user experience of
menstrual residues staying on top of sanitary pads and pantyliners, with the hope to enhance it
by proposing design solutions. The user experience perspective applied in the project covered the
emotional aspects evoked by objects. Desmet and Hekkert’s (2002) model of product emotions
was used where the model aided in studying emotional responses to consumer products
throughout the project.
User research was performed to generate a holistic view of the user experience of menstrual
residues. The participants of the user research contributed with insights that led to the
identification of several improvement areas. It was palpable that the majority of the users
experience menstrual residues on sanitary pads, whereas not on pantyliners. Therefore, the
decision was made to only proceed with sanitary pads. The user research resulted in a UX goal to
enhance security when experiencing residues on sanitary pads. The UX goal contained three
subcategories; control, comfort and awareness. Approaching the subcategories helped in meeting the
UX goal.
Concepts were generated targeting each of the subcategories which were evaluated. Based on
this, a decision to combine several of the concepts was taken. This generated a final concept
consisting of three parts; a sanitary pad, a product wrap and an app. The sanitary pad is designed
with a recessed middle part with an embossing and a printed pattern. The wrap has printed
quotes on the inside of it, lifting women's experiences of menstrual residues. The app provides
three main functions; a period tracker, a forum and a library of articles. All three solutions target
different subcategories of the UX goal and are therefore ideally used together to complement
each other and further enhance security.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
User experience, Menstruation, Menstrual residues, Sanitary protection, Feminine hygiene products, Sanitary pads, Pantyliners, Essity, Libresse